A Beijing landmark, the China World Trade Center, locally known simply as "Guomao," is an impressive modern shopping center where you can buy almost anything. Designer stores include Louis Vuitton, Celine, Prada, Gucci and Hermes. Banks with foreign exchange facilities and 24-hour ATMs, beauty salons, pharmacies, clinics, food courts and even an ice rink are all in here.

For over 600 years, citizens of Beijing have thronged to Dashalar Street to bargain for their daily needs. The entrance to the street is on the west side of Qianmen Street, just a couple of hundred yards south of Tiananmen Square. Apart from silks, fabrics and clothes, this is a place where you can encounter practitioners of Chinese medicine, who might be able to prescribe a mystical remedy or special health tonic for you.

Situated just east of the Forbidden City at the corner of Wangfujing Street is Asia's second largest shopping mall. Oriental Plaza is bright and spacious and offers fashion stores, jewelers, health and beauty outlets, a launderette, supermarket, coffee shops, restaurants, a huge McDonalds, a Palaeolithic museum, banks with exchange facilities and a 24-hour ATM. There's usually some kind of fashion show and IT/ electronics promotion going on, too.